When Minecraft Dungeons was announced, fans were surprised to see the series taking such an interesting turn in terms of gameplay — in a good way, of course — mainly because the original Minecraft is more of a sandbox/open world experience, and this new title is focusing on action-adventure.
From the trailers that developer Mojang has released, players have been able to get a pretty good idea of what to expect from Minecraft Dungeons, and the game does look like it does bring a bunch of interesting mechanics.
In fact, a recent interview with Minecraft Dungeons Director Måns Olson has revealed that the game has drawn inspiration from other renowned video game series like Dark Souls and even Nintendo's popular The Legend of Zelda series, although "not as much of that has made it through into the game as it is today," Olson revealed.
Minecraft Dungeons is no longer drawing inspiration from The Legend of Zelda or Dark Souls, but instead from other renowned video game series that feature hack and slash, as well as dungeon crawler elements — which have defined the genre of Mojang's new game.
"If you look at inspirations now, it's closer in terms of gameplay to games like Diablo, Torchlight, and Gauntlet. And also the cooperative experience is pulling a lot from modern first-person shooter cooperative games like Left 4 Dead and [Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide]. So absolutely there's been things that have been either implemented and then changed, or designed on paper, but that never made it into the game," Olson added.
Minecraft Dungeons is slated to release on Friday the 26th of May for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass, and PC, although Olson actually revealed that this wasn't always the case, as they initially planned to develop the game for a very different console.
"It started as a small single-player game, smaller in scope, and as we started prototyping we realized it would be fun to play multiplayer," says Olson. "Originally this was considered as a 3DS game, but then we realized we wanted to have it on the Switch, PlayStation, Xbox Game Pass, and Windows," explained Olson during his interview with US Gamer.
When a lonely, outcast Illager stumbles upon a mysterious object with terrifying powers, his entire existence is turned upside down. Before long, he finds himself on a path of evil, causing mayhem across the Overworld. Who can stop him?
Minecraft Dungeons will release for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Game Pass, and PC on the 26th of May.